{"id":137564,"date":"2025-09-14T22:03:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T22:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/137564\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T22:03:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T22:03:16","slug":"baby-beavers-arrival-to-rushden-lakes-brings-joy-and-excitement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/137564\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby beavers’ arrival to Rushden Lakes brings joy and excitement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kate Bradbrookin Rushden and<\/p>\n

Alex PopeNorthamptonshire<\/p>\n

The arrival of beaver kits has been described as a “landmark moment” for nature in Northamptonshire<\/p>\n

Workers and volunteers at a Wildlife Trust said they were overjoyed after discovering baby beavers had been born at a nature reserve for the first time in more than 400 years. <\/p>\n

The new arrivals were spotted at the Nene Wetlands nature reserve, part of Rushden Lakes, in Northamptonshire. <\/p>\n

Volunteer Jeannette Smith said after noticing mother Boudica had put on weight, everyone “kept their fingers” crossed that the babies, known as kits, would appear. <\/p>\n

Reserve officers said two had been spotted, but more could be in the lodge that the mammals, including dad, Alan, had built.<\/p>\n

\"KateKate Bradbrook\/BBC<\/p>\n

Ben Casey said there could be more kits as the breading season goes on until April <\/p>\n

Ben Casey, project officer, said it was “the first beaver kits to be born in Northamptonshire for at least 400 years potentially”. <\/p>\n

“The whole team is incredibly excited, it’s a real landmark moment for nature restoration in the county.<\/p>\n

“We’re over the moon, we’re overjoyed it is the first time this has happened in such a long time it’s such a momentous thing to happen.”<\/p>\n

The family of eight, including adult female Boudicca, adult male Alan, and their six young, known as kits, had been moved down from Scotland, in February. <\/p>\n

\"KateKate Bradbrook\/BBC<\/p>\n

Jeanette Smith said now babies had been born it was going to make visitors even more interested in the project<\/p>\n

Ms Smith said there was a “massive interest” in the beavers from visitors. <\/p>\n

“Nearly every other person that comes in wants to talk beaver, we’re extremely excited.<\/p>\n

“It’s an amazing thing that’s brought a lot of people down to the wetlands.<\/p>\n

“Everyone kept their fingers crossed when they had built a new lodge.”<\/p>\n

\"KateKate Bradbrook\/BBC<\/p>\n

Julia French has only spotted the beavers once, when they were first released in February <\/p>\n

Julia French, who volunteers and works on the site, said: “It’s been absolutely brilliant to find out, it’s been a really nice project, and really fun, it makes me even more engaged than what I was before. <\/p>\n

“There’s been so much interest, kids have been so interested as they’ve never seen a beaver before and there’s just a really nice positive attitude about it.”<\/p>\n

\"KateKate Bradbrook\/BBC<\/p>\n

The beavers have felled trees, gnawed bark and built a lodge <\/p>\n

The trust is now asking people to get in touch to name the young, with the final decision going to a public vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kate Bradbrookin Rushden and Alex PopeNorthamptonshire The arrival of beaver kits has been described as a “landmark moment”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-137564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}